


Meetings After Midnight

by lod



Series: Pegoryu Week 2018 [1]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Cell Phones, Duct Tape, Friendship, Gen, M/M, PegoRyu week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 07:14:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15114422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lod/pseuds/lod
Summary: Early nights after Mementos are boring, but luckily, Ryuji’s always there to keep Akira company.





	Meetings After Midnight

Akira turned over in bed, drawing a grumpy sound from Morgana. He hated these post-Metaverse nights. Running around as Joker left him with a sort of jittery energy, as though he’d just downed three espressos, but Morgana always insisted on heading straight to bed. He wasn’t quite sure why he let a cat tell him what to do, but Morgana had a way of saying “You should sleep” that snuck into your brain and left you thinking it was your decision to slip into bed, which was how Akira found himself staring at the full moon at 2 AM, wide awake.

They’d gone on a fairly low-key Mementos run today; only one forum request to handle, a few new floors explored. He’d mostly called the Thieves in because he’d noticed how stir-crazy Ryuji seemed to be getting this summer, and some extra cash to spend at Untouchable was always a good thing. Thinking of Untouchable reminded him of the Aquamarine they’d found in the Bank that was still sitting on the ledge beneath his window. He reached for it, spinning it between his fingers and holding it up to the moonlight. He really ought to sell it, but he couldn’t bring himself to. Something about gemstones really called to him; not anything spiritual — although he was sure Chihaya would be able to do something with them — but he just loved holding them, looking at them. Iwai always gave him a particularly suspicious look when he showed up with these fancier items, which was all the excuse he’d needed to keep this one out of the latest haul sale.

Putting the stone down, he reached over Morgana carefully and grabbed his phone from the shelf that served as his nightstand to send Ryuji a quick text.

> **Akira** I can’t sleeeeep

Akira loved chatting with Ryuji. They talked about anything and everything, and a lot about nothing as well, but that was what he loved about it; feeling so comfortable around someone. He appreciated all the other friends he’d made in Tokyo, in and outside of the Phantom Thieves, but he always saw them to do something. Generally, to do something _for_ them. It wasn’t that he resented it; he loved helping his friends, but it was different with Ryuji. There wasn’t any formality with his best friend. The blond would show up unannounced even when Akira wasn’t home, sit on the couch, and start reading the manga he was always carting around as if he lived there.

Ryuji didn’t reply right away. He was probably asleep, like most sane people were at 2 in the morning. By now, Akira felt like he might explode if he had to stay in bed another minute. He slipped carefully out of bed, by some miracle managing not to wake Morgana up, and hesitated a bit. He was tempted to go check out Tanaka’s online shop, but he always ended up buying some useless joke items when he did. He was really lucky no one ever checked the Phantom Thieves’ expenses. Anyway, there wasn’t much he could do in the bedroom without turning on the lights, so he padded carefully down the stairs with his phone in hand.

He’d read through all the books he owned already, mostly when he managed to snag a seat on the subway to school, but he looked through the stack on the counter anyway. A few local tourism magazines were wedged in amidst the various books he’d bought. _Medjed Menace_ , _Ghost Encounters_ , that one terribly boring fishing book he still couldn’t believe he’d managed to finish... 

A plasticky cover caught his eye. _The Great Thief_ ? Wow, that was from the school library, and probably outrageously overdue. He was definitely going to need Makoto’s help to smooth this one over. Akira pulled it out of the stack and sat in a booth, flipping through it. Arsene had been his first Persona, and although he didn’t take the original gentleman thief along on his explorations these days, the Persona still held a special spot in his heart, like a first lover, gone but never forgotten.

As he was rereading a particularly snarky bit with Herlock Sholmes, his phone buzzed on the table.

> **Ryuji** You want me to come over?

Akira smiled to himself. Ryuji was a great friend, but he really needed to learn to give away a bit less of himself.

> **Akira** It’s way too late, and how would you even get here? Sorry if I woke you up, by the way.
> 
> **Ryuji** Nah, I can’t sleep either. I was gonna start reading some new stuff I bought today.

He’d attached a picture of a stack of manga novels. When he made money from Metaverse treasure, Akira always gave a small part back to each of the Phantom Thieves, and he was pretty sure Ryuji spent every cent he got on manga. Really, it was a bit ridiculous the sheer amount of it he had in his room. Akira took a closer look at the picture, and gasped.

> **Akira** We were supposed to read that one together!
> 
> **Ryuji** But I don’t have anything else I haven’t read yet!
> 
> **Akira** Don’t you dare!
> 
> **Ryuji** Uh, what if we read it together? Video chat?
> 
> **Akira** That seems unwieldy, but also, obviously yes.

Akira’s phone started vibrating as Ryuji called him.

> **Akira** Hold on, I have to go get my headphones, don’t wanna wake Morgana up.
> 
> **Ryuji** (^._.^)ﾉ

Akira carefully crept back up the stairs, grabbing his headphones off the table where he’d left them and hurrying back downstairs. He put them on and called Ryuji back.

“Hey,” he said softly as the call connected.

“What? I can barely hear you,” Ryuji replied. He was laying back on his bed shirtless, a half empty box of potato snacks at his side.

“Turn your sound up then,” Akira said just as quietly and stuck out his tongue. “I don’t even want to imagine what Morgana would do to me if he found out I was awake right now.”

Ryuji winced. “Yeah ok, that’s fair.”

“So how do you want to do this exactly?”

Ryuji put the phone down, and Akira was left staring at an off-white ceiling with a crack running through it. He’d seen Ryuji’s room from previous video calls, but he’d never actually been there. Ryuji always said his mom felt guilty about how the place looked and didn’t want him to bring people over. Akira’d assured him he would never judge, but apparently she wouldn’t budge.

He heard what sounded like Ryuji rummaging around in a drawer, then the  _ floop _ of him jumping back onto the bed. He picked his phone back up and Akira found himself looking at a very excited Ryuji holding a roll of duct tape.

“I’m gonna tape the phone to my chest!” Ryuji said proudly.

“That’s ridiculous,” Akira said as he rolled his eyes, “but... it might actually work.”

“Yeah!” Ryuji turned the phone around, holding a book open against his drawn-up knees with one hand while the other held the phone against his chest. “Tell me when I’m at the right height, ok?”

“Little bit higher… yeah, right there, that’s good.” 

Ryuji taped the phone to himself, which worked out surprisingly well, and they started reading together, live-commenting the scenes to each other as they went. They gasped together at the unexpected attack, laughed together as the main character accidentally emailed his confession of love to his teacher, and Akira couldn’t be sure because he couldn’t see Ryuji’s face, but he was fairly certain they cried together when the dog died, too. Ryuji’s emotions were contagious, like he had too many to keep them to himself and they couldn’t help but to overflow into the nearest human vessel. Akira loved reading with him for that reason.

They were finishing up the fourth book when that elusive exhaustion from earlier hit Akira like a ton of bricks, suddenly and mercilessly. He found himself yawning loudly, his jaw cracking, and he heard Ryuji yawn in echo. Checking the time, he realised it was already nearly 4.

“Wanna save the rest for another day?”

Ryuji put the book down and started fiddling with the phone, Akira getting a close-up view of gym-callused hands. “Yeah, I’m beat. Wait, why won’t this come off?”

Akira snorted. “That’s duct tape, it’s not easy to remove. Kind of the point.”

Pulling harder, Ryuji finally ripped half the tape off with a loud yelp. “Owwww!” 

Akira couldn’t help but laugh. “What, you’re not into epilation?”

“This ain’t funny, dude! It hurts like hell and there’s glue left!”

Akira took pity on his friend. “I think nail polish remover should take the glue off, if your mom has any. You’re gonna have to rip the other half of this off though.”

Ryuji groaned, then grabbed the phone and gave a quick jerk, another howl escaping him. He finally held the phone back towards himself, and Akira noticed he had tears at the corners of his eyes. “Well, I have a whole new appreciation for what girls go through when they wax now,” he said with a pained voice.

Akira bit back a grin and replied, “Thanks.”

“For what, ripping half my chest off for you?”

“That too! But, also, you know. For being here even when you’re not here.”

“That’s so sappy,” Ryuji said with a smirk.

“It’s 4 am, I’m allowed to be sappy about my best friend. If you’re gonna come over tomorrow it better not be before noon, ok?”

Ryuji yawned again. “Yeah, definitely not. Good night!”

“Good night, Ryuji.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Pegoryu Week 2018, day 1: Meeting.  
> This is pre-”Revelations” (and therefore pre-relationship). If you’re interested in reading in order, please read [Revelations](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14656560/chapters/33860052) before going on to the next fic in this series.
> 
> PS: I have a tumblr! https://thermopylod.tumblr.com/ It's mostly me going crazy reposting pegoryu week things, right now ;)


End file.
